


Despair

by IcyPheonix



Series: Gyze!Chrono AU [2]
Category: Cardfight!! Vanguard
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Character Death, Gen, Possession
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-03
Updated: 2018-01-03
Packaged: 2019-02-27 15:28:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13251138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IcyPheonix/pseuds/IcyPheonix
Summary: Chrono has no escape, he's trapped. Trapped with something that wants to Diffride him.Ibuki can't understand what went wrong, and why Chrono didn't return from Relics.Or a continuation of 'A Moment To Late'http://archiveofourown.org/works/13055292





	Despair

**Author's Note:**

> Well, you wanted a continuation, even though I only had a, vague idea of how one would go.
> 
> Also have you any idea how difficult it is to write a character that literally 0 characterization cause their only appearance was a non-speaking role?  
> Difficult, so if this ends up contradiction how canon!Gyze acts/sounds, bah.
> 
> The Gastille-Ibuki fight is basically a rewrite of the episode 11 fight, but earlier in the time line.

Ibuki couldn’t understand it, Chrono should have been saved, should have been returned along with the rest of those trapped in Relics. But he hadn’t, according to Tokoha and the others who arrived at the scene, everyone was there except Chrono.

“ _Chrono, where are you?_ "

 

If Chrono knew one thing about his surroundings, it was that he was no longer in Relics. Mainly because Relics didn’t have couches(at least he assumed it was a couch he’d been lying on), or windows. It had doors though, much like the room he was in, and much like the room he was in they tended not to open, or opened to more weirdness.

He’d tried banging on the door and wiggling the handle till exhaustion set in again and he nearly collapsed on the ground and he decided that no one was coming.

Shaking off the stiff and sore feeling, Chrono dragged himself over to the window to try and look outside, maybe he could figure out where he was from there.

Waves and rocks, that was the sight that greeted him when he looked out the window, an unfamiliar ocean.

“Damnit!” he slammed his fist into the wall in frustration.

He felt around the edges of the window but to no avail, there was no way to open it; not that getting it open would help. No one would hear him and there was nowhere for him to go.

He dug into his pocket, fishing out his phone, maybe he could phone someone. If he could phone someone they could track him then, right? And besides, if what Gyze said was true, he had to warn Ibuki.

The Messiah’s Vanguard, he had to be referring to Ibuki, and ‘dealt with’ didn’t sound too pleasant.

“Come on, turn on damnit, turn on!” He jabbed at the phone, pressing buttons hurriedly, but to no avail, the screen remained blank and dark.

The battery was dead, of course it was. There hadn’t exactly been anyway to charge it in Relics and god only knew how long he’d spent there. Long enough for the battery to run dry at any rate.

He growled in frustration, hand shaking as he tightened his grip on his cell phone, fighting the urge the chuck it across the room.

He had no way out and no way to contact anyone. He’d simply traded one prison for another.

Of course, he wasn’t alone. There was one individual he could talk to, not that he wanted to. Gyze.

Gyze had gone silent but Chrono could still feel the great entity’s presence, like a chill on the back of his neck that he couldn’t quite shake.

He tangled a hand in his hair in annoyance, he couldn’t just sit around and do nothing, and yet, that was all he could do.

 

A week, that was how long it had been since Chrono had been taken by the Apostles, how long it had been since he’d gone missing.

Ibuki laced his fingers together under his chin as he stared across the room of his office. They were supposed to have rescued him, but somehow they’d failed.

It just didn’t make any sense, everyone else had come back so why hadn’t Chrono?

A soft knock on the door snapped him back to reality and he lifted his head slightly.

“Ibuki-san?” Taiyou pushed the door open as he looked in. “Oh, you are in!” Before Ibuki could say anything, Taiyou slipped in, quickly closing the door behind him. “I hope I’m not interrupting but, I had to talk to you.”

Ibuki raised an eyebrow curiously. “Oh?’

“It’s about Chrono.”

That had his attention and he straightened up at his desk.

“It’s about what happened in Relics. I don’t know if it’ll help but, maybe it’s why he didn’t come back.”

“What happened?”

Wringing his hands together nervously, Taiyou took a deep breath and began to explain.

He told Ibuki about the marks that had appeared on their hands and what they meant. How over time the points began to glow, and how, for a moment during the collapse of Relics he’d seen Chrono consumed by a raging shadow. And that in that moment it looked as if his mark had been completed.

It was a worrying story to be sure; the Apostles had marked Chrono as a vessel, and from what Taiyou had said, it sounded like they might have succeeded in their plans.

Ibuki shook his head, no, he couldn’t think like that. If they had succeeded in bringing Gyze over they would have known by now. Since they’d rescued the others from Relics things had been quiet, the Apostles keeping quiet. It was worrying, but not as worrying as it would have been had they made another move. So what were they waiting for?

He sighed as he filed away the last of his paperwork and left for the night, if the Apostles still had Chrono then they had to rescue him and fast, before it was to late.

The only question was how.

Lost in thought, Ibuki didn’t notice the shadows that followed him down the road, or the air crackling around him, until it was to late.

A stinging sensation like an electric shock whipped past the side of his head, causing him to flinch and instinctively grab at his face.

The air around him seemed to buzz and hiss and he froze in place, watching as what could only be described as dark lightning cut through the air around him. It crackled like a live wire and he didn’t dare move incase he touched one.

It was a futile effort as the energy, heavy and oppressive, closed in around him, and everything fell to darkness.

 

“I know you can hear me,” said Chrono, arms folded behind his head as he lay on the small couch. “So you better start answering my questions.”

Chrono had finally had enough of Gyze’s silence, he was going to get answers, though he hadn’t really decided how he was going to force what was probably a near literal god, into answering. Maybe he could annoy Gyze into talking.

“What are you going to be to Ibuki-san?”

‘ _Why? It is not as if you can do anything to stop it._ ’

Chrono’s eyebrows shot up, he’s actually responded!

“Because, because Ibuki-san’s my friend! What are you planning to do to him? What did you mean by, dealt with?”

 

“You! You’re Evil God Bishop, Gastille!”

The blond man simply smirked as he strode towards Ibuki, stepping out of the chain filled shadows around them and greeting Ibuki with a mock bow.

“Welcome, vanguard of Messiah, to your last day alive.”

“What have you done with Chrono?”

“Straight to the point I see. Very well.” Raising one hand, Gastille snapped his fingers, bringing into existence a Vanguard table. “I’ll tell you want to know, but only if you can defeat me.”

“Fine by me. If I defeat you, the leader of the Apostles, I get Chrono back and we put a stop to your plans.”

“Will you now?”

“I will risk everything to stop you!”

Gastille smirked, “I hope so.”

 

“Stand up, Z Vanguard!”

“Stand up the Vanguard!”

 

‘ _Tell me, Shindou, do you know what Messiah is?_ ’ Gyze voice rumbled deep in Chrono’s mind as he closed his eyes.

Chrono frowned, Messiah was a unit used by Ibuki but that was all he really knew about it. Despite it being Link Joker, he’d never seen anyone else use cards with those names before.

‘ _I see. Messiah is harmony and creation, and hope, everything I am not. It is also the only reason you are how you are right now. Messiah’s light protects you from me Shindou. But once that light is snuffed out, there will be nothing left stopping me from crossing through to you. And to do that, we must first extinguish the light of Messiah’s vanguard._ ’

“You can’t!”

‘ _No? At the moment he faces one of my strongest warriors in a fight, a fight that will claim his life. But, I suppose if you wish to spare him that fate, there is one thing you can do._ ’

 

Ibuki clutched at his chest, panting heavily and gasping. One moment he’d been fighting, the next he’d taken a point of damage and it felt as if someone had struck him hard in the chest. And the feeling didn’t go away. His whole chest felt tight, as if a steel band had wrapped around it.

From across the table, Gastille grinned madly, seemingly pleased with this course of events.

“As I said, this is a fight for you, for your very life,” he said calmly. “For you see, under Gyze’s divine protection I have been bestowed a most glorious power here. The power to curse Messiah. Fate has twined the two of you together, so through weakening you, I weaken Messiah, whittling your life away with every damage you take. And a weakened Messiah is no match for Gyze’s forces. Perhaps, we might even be able to strike at its true body, and slay it once and for all.”

Ibuki grunted, holding his chest as his vision swam in pain. “So that’s what this is about then,” he said, straightening up as he fought back against the pain.

“I wonder, how long can a mere human like you, withstand Gyze’s curse?”

“Do your worst. I lost fear of death a long time ago.”

 

Chrono sat up quickly, eyes flying open as he held his head, a way to save Ibuki from dying? He opened his mouth to speak but stopped; if Gyze was telling him this then it couldn’t have been anything good. There was no way that Gyze would be helping him.

“What’s the catch?” he asked. “You wouldn’t tell me this if there wasn’t some kind of catch involved.”

For a moment it fell quiet, then Chrono felt it, that sickening, chilling sensation he’d felt in Relics when Gyze had smiled.

‘ _You already know the answer, Chrono Shindou. For you have already been told how to save your friend from this, unfortunate fate._ ’

Chrono screwed his face up as he held his head, what did he mean by that? He’d already been told? The only thing he’d been told was…Chrono froze, a pit forming in his stomach as Gastille’s words rang in his mind.

 

‘ _Offer yourself…to Gyze._ ’

‘ _You would be the only sacrifice._ ’

 

Chrono shook his head; no he couldn’t take that option he couldn’t let something so evil into him. Gastille had said that his will could keep Gyze in control but, for how long? And what if he wasn’t strong enough? If he couldn’t hold Gyze back then it would be for nothing.

“No, no! I will never let you have me!” he yelled. “You hear that, never!” Tears of frustration stung his eyes as he knotted his fingers in his hair. “I trust Ibuki-san. I know how he fights, I know he’ll win!”

‘ _You seen certain of this._ ’

“Because I know Ibuki-san, he’d never lose to the likes of you!”

‘ _Are you sure about that?_ ’

The world around Chrono began to distort and melt, the walls and couch vanishing around him and giving into the consuming darkness.

“Wait, what’s happening? What’s going on?” Chrono scrambled to his feet, spinning around as his surroundings began to change. Chains filled the darkness around him and soon Chrono heard voices, coming from somewhere below.

It sounded like a fight was in progress and as Chrono turned to look he felt his blood run cold. Ibuki was engaged in a fight with Gastille, and he seemed to be losing. He was barely on his feet, one hand gripping the table as he fell to his knees, the other clutching his chest in pain his cries ragged and strangled.

“You’re still holding on? I’m impressed. But this is the end for you.” Gastille shifted his weight from one foot to the other, looking across the Vanguard table to Ibuki. “Glanzend attacks your Vanguard!”

With shaking hands Ibuki threw a handful of cards onto the field for a guard, blocking the attack.

“I’m, not out of this yet.”

Chrono cheered, “I told you he wouldn’t lose.”

‘ _You seem awfully sure about a fight that has not yet concluded,_ ’ rumbled Gyze’s voice in his head. ‘ _Why not take a closer look?_ ’

Chrono looked back to the field, the damage was 5 to 3, in favour of Gastille and Ibuki could barely stand upon his own two feet, slipping with each passing moment. He gasped, reaching feebly across the table to his cards, hands shaking.

“Not yet…I won’t fall yet.”

“Ibuki-san!” Chrono lunged forward only to be stopped as thick chains barred his path and other, smaller ones wound around his wrists, pulling him back.

‘ _You made your choice, Chrono Shindou, now face the consequences of your actions._ ’

Helpless, he watched as Ibuki staggered, fingers just barely reaching his cards as he sunk to his knees.

“Is this your limit?” asked Gastille, tilting his head to one side as Ibuki collapsed into a heap on the ground, chest heaving with every strained breath. “How pathetic.”

“No, Ibuki-san!” Chrono strained through the chains, reaching towards Ibuki. “Ibuki-san!”

The image around him vanished and Chrono stumbled forward no that nothing was holding him back, in the middle of the room once again, silence falling around him.

“No, no!” He dropped to his knees, nails scraping the floor. “He can’t be, he wouldn’t…” He clenched his eyes shut, was this his fault in some way, because he hadn’t taken up Gyze’s offer, hadn’t joined him? Chrono trembled as tears broke free, splashing onto the floor around his hands. A sharp pain lanced through his hand, the mark glowing brightly.

He didn’t notice the shadows growing around him, or the darkness filling every corner of the room.

‘ _Fall into despair, Gear Chronicle Singularity. Let it consume you and fill your heart. Messiah’s Vanguard has fallen, and soon, Messiah will fall too._ ’

The darkness wound around Chrono like a pair of arms as he put his face in his hands. He’d failed, he’d failed everyone. He’d failed Ibuki; he’d failed his friends, he’d failed.

‘ _You will become my Vanguard and soon, we will issue in a new world, a new age of destruction_.’

Something touched the underside of Chrono’s chin and he lifted his head, finding himself looking into Gyze’s red eyes.

He shivered as the world around him grew hazy, the roar of wind filling his ears and a tingling sensation flowing up his arm and towards his chest.

‘ _Chrono Shindou, the Gear Chronicle Singularity. My Vanguard._ ’

**Author's Note:**

> Look, if canon's gonna tease me with the idea of Gyze!Chrono and take forever to fulfill on that, well you can't expect me to NOT do something now can you?


End file.
